This "mini-course" is meant to provide the student with the opportunity to demonstrate the ability to get along in a partially online course.

We have found that students who do not have some experience working on the web and using the various features of the course site experience a very high rate of frustration & failure. We are extremely interested in the success of our students!

In order to make sure that you are enrolling in a course in which you can be successful, we need to indicate to you what skills you will need, provide you with a way to practice them and then ask you to demonstrate your ability to perform those tasks. They will be required when you actually take the course.

First you need to know that FCPS uses three different types of course sites. All of them require the same skills and use the same features, however, each of them works in different ways. We believe that knowing the basic idea is the important thing and that once you master the skill in one system you will be able to figure out how most any system works. Once you are enrolled in a specific course that uses a particular system, there will be an orientation to that course site and the course you are taking.

Our assessment consists of 8 activities, with 5 graded assignments. In order to successfully complete the course, you must do all activities and earn a minimum score of 7 on at least 4 of the 5 graded assignments by the course deadline.

Here is the list of basic skills we feel you will need to be successful in the online course for which you have registered.

Each student will be asked to:

• Take Online Survey - Illinois Online Network's Self-Evaluation for Potential Online Students (http://www.ion.uillinois.edu/resources/tutorials/pedagogy/selfEval.asp)
  
• Read fully and follow directions completely for an activity or assignment
  
• Login and change their password
  
• Complete the student profile - Check, Edit & Confirm Student Information. Especially email and Phone contact information
  
• Respond properly to an email from the instructor
  
• Post a discussion thread
  
• Download, open, complete and post an assignment in the dropbox
  
• Take a quiz
  
• Successfully navigate through a series of content materials
  
• Open and read an Adobe Acrobat (pdf) file
  
• Complete a series of tasks on a specific timeline
  
• Access, read and interpret their progress
  
• View a Flash program
  
• Listen to an audio message